Taking it easy at Villeneuve-Loubet

---

Geo: 43.6201, 7.12581

Sunday, we did not venture out, partly to keep off the busy weekend roads. The temperature was soon in the low 30s again so for some of the day we stayed in the shade of the awning. The bedtime temperatures that night were particularly high too, to such an extent that if you moved you had to peel yourself off the sheet! However, on waking Monday morning, there were distant rumbles of thunder, followed by rain, so it was then a scramble to batten down the hatches (roof lights and windows) to make the caravan watertight. The awning was a different matter since the side panels were not installed, so the 'outdoor' stuff got a thorough soaking as the wind drove in the rain and puddles formed on the pitch.

By 10.00am the storm had passed and patches of blue sky could be seen in the distance, with conditions continuing to rapidly improve so that by midday we were back to 30 degrees, dried out and you would not know that anything had happened.

Tuesday morning, we decided to try another supermarket, Geant Casino near Nice, partly in our quest to find the gizmo that would enable me to transfer photographs from my compact camera to the iPad without doing so wirelessly. Success! Albeit their own brand rather than Apple. So in the trolley it went with the remainder of the shopping (including some insect repellant for our forthcoming stay on the edge of the Camargue). Checkout was not straightforward though since the cashier had great difficulty removing the security tag from the gizmo, but got there eventually much to the irritation of customers behind us in the queue. Once 'home' we got it working, so I have now updated the blog with new pics so future postings should be suitably illustrated from the outset.

A bit now about camp life. The pitches compared to some we have stayed on are generous in size, complete with our own water supply and drain for waste water. On either side of us are 'seasonal' French campers (two of several) who are clearly here for the long haul judging by the equipment and annexes they have set up, such as gazebos, parasols, party tents, TV, full-sized fridge, and they clearly meet up year on year judging by the tooing and froing, socialising, kissing rituals on greeting. Very much a unique community.

The couple to our right have apparently been coming here for forty years and now retired stay for six months! This was as told by their son who was visiting from Paris with two of his daughters, including the charming Marie-Lou, aged five years, who delighted us with her ceaseless chatter, singing and laughter, not that we understood what she was on about most of the time, though she impressed David with her rendition of 'The Wheels on the Bus' - in English!

Today we ventured into the hills again to explore some of the 'perched' villages. The first of which was Colomars and something of a let-down as it appeared to be nothing special, and no sign of anything relating to the advertised special olive trees. So we quickly moved on to Aspremont, also in the tourist brochure, and this proved to be more interesting. We had a pizza lunch before climbing the steps from the square up to the look out point with views down the Var and to the Côte d'Azur below.

The final village for today was Castagniers, also connected with the prize-winning cailletier olive oil. Whilst the museum was closed, on leaving the village we came across a sign for the mill and were eventually able to buy some oil and olive pâté from the shop. So our journey had not been in vain and we have some foodie souvenirs to savour later in the trip.

Wednesday night is party night here, so off to the bar to publish this entry!

---

Comments

[Ali]

Amazing thunderstorm here Friday evening. Has been v hot but cooler today and rain forecast. Probate through at last, went to Lincoln Thursday, saw Beryl and Sheila. Hopefully sale won't be too long, we've got form fatigue with different t
hings.

[lynnib]

Hi! We have been off line for a while as the wifi at the Arles site was extortionate for poor service, but much better value and signal here in Languedoc. Let me know if you would like to Skype/FaceTime at any time in the next week. We to
o have had our share of thunderstorms - yesterday we had three in the space of 24 hours so just as well we did our sightseeing when we did. Brought the mozzies out big time ths morning though. Ugh!